1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display, and more particularly to a thin film transistor substrate structure of horizontal electric field applying type and a fabricating method thereof that are capable of simplifying a fabricating process by a three-round mask process including lift-off process.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a liquid crystal display (LCD) controls light transmittance of liquid crystal material using an electric field to display a picture. The liquid crystal displays are largely classified into a vertical electric field type and a horizontal electric field type depending upon the direction that the electric field drives the liquid crystal material.
The vertical electric field type liquid crystal display drives liquid crystal material in a twisted nematic (TN) mode with a vertical electric field formed between a pixel electrode and a common electrode arranged opposite each other on the upper and lower substrate. The liquid crystal display of vertical electric field applying type has an advantage of a large aperture ratio while having a drawback of a narrow viewing angle about 90°.
The horizontal electric field type liquid crystal display drives liquid crystal material in an in plane switch (IPS) mode with a horizontal electric field formed between the pixel electrode and the common electrode arranged in parallel to each other on the lower substrate. The liquid crystal display of horizontal electric field applying type has an advantage of an wide viewing angle about 160°.
Hereinafter, the horizontal electric field type liquid crystal display will be described in detail. The horizontal electric field type liquid crystal display includes a thin film transistor substrate (i.e., a lower substrate) and a color filter substrate (i.e., an upper substrate) joined with each other, a spacer for maintaining a uniform cell gap between two substrates, and a liquid crystal material interposed in the cell gap. The thin film transistor array substrate includes a plurality of signal wirings forming a horizontal electric field for each pixel, a plurality of thin film transistors, and an alignment film coated thereon to align the liquid crystal material. The color filter substrate includes a color filter for implementing a color, a black matrix for preventing a light leakage and an alignment film coated thereon to align the liquid crystal material.
In such a liquid crystal display, the thin film transistor substrate has a complicated fabrication process leading to a significant increase in a manufacturing cost of the liquid crystal display panel. Because the fabrication process involves a semiconductor process requiring a plurality of mask processes. To solve this problem, the thin film transistor substrate structure has been developed to reduce a total number of mask processes, for example, one mask process can accommodate processes such as thin film deposition, cleaning, photolithography, etching, photo-resist stripping and inspection processes, or other suitable techniques. Recently, a four-mask process, one less mask process from an existing five-mask process, is becoming a standard mask process for the thin film transistor.
FIG. 1 is a plan view showing a thin film transistor substrate using a horizontal electric field adopting the related art four-mask process, and FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the thin film transistor substrate taken along I–I′ and II–II′ lines of FIG. 1. Referring to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, the thin film transistor substrate includes a gate line 2 and a data line 4 provided on a lower substrate 45 intersecting each other and insulated from each other by a gate insulating film 46 therebetween, a thin film transistor 6 provided at an intersection of the gate line 2 and the date line 4, a pixel electrode 14 and a common electrode 18 provided at a pixel area defined by the intersection structure for forming a horizontal field, and a common line 16 connected to the common electrode 18. Furthermore, the thin film transistor substrate includes a storage capacitor 20 provided at an area where the pixel electrode 14 overlaps the common line 16, a gate pad 24 connected to the gate line 2, a data pad 30 connected to the data line 4 and a common pad 36 connected to the common line 16. The gate line 2 is supplied with a gate signal and the data line 4 is supplied with a data signal and are provided in an intersection structure to define a pixel area 5.
The common line 16 is provided parallel with the gate line 2 and having the pixel area 5 provided in-between. The common line 16 is supplied with a reference voltage for driving the liquid crystal material. The thin film transistor 6 includes a gate electrode 8 connected to the gate line 2, a source electrode 10 connected to the data line 4, and a drain electrode 12 connected to the pixel electrode 14. Furthermore, the thin film transistor 6 includes an active layer 48 overlapping the gate electrode 8 and having a gate insulating film 46 therebetween to define a channel between the source electrode 10 and the drain electrode 12. The thin film transistor 6 allows the pixel signal from the data line 4 to be charged and maintained in the pixel electrode 14 in response to the gate signal from the gate line 2.
The active layer 48 also overlaps the data line 4, a lower data pad electrode 32 and an upper storage electrode 22. An ohmic contact layer 50 is further provided on the active layer 48 to make an ohmic contact with the data line 4, the source electrode 10, the drain electrode 12, and the lower data pad electrode 32. The pixel electrode 14 is connected to the drain electrode 12 of the thin film transistor 6 that is provided at the pixel area 5 via a first contact hole 13 passing through a protective film 52. More precisely, the pixel electrode 14 includes a first horizontal part 14A connected to the drain electrode 12 and provided in parallel with adjacent gate lines 2, a second horizontal part 14B overlapping with the common line 16, and a extended portion 14C provided between the first and second horizontal parts 14A and 14B and arranged in parallel with the first and second horizontal parts 14A and 14B. The common electrode 18 is connected to the common line 16 and is provided at the pixel area 5. Specifically, the common electrode 18 is provided in parallel with the extended portion 14C of the pixel electrode 14 at the pixel area 5.
Accordingly, a horizontal electric field is formed between the pixel electrode 14 to which a pixel signal is supplied via the thin film transistor 6 and the common electrode 18 to which a reference voltage is supplied via the common line 16. Particularly, the horizontal electric field is formed between the extended portion 14C of the pixel electrode 14 and the common electrode 18. Liquid crystal material arranged in the horizontal direction by the horizontal electric field between the thin film transistor substrate and the color filter substrate are rotated due to a dielectric anisotropy. Transmittance of light to the pixel area 5 is varied depending on a rotation extent of the liquid crystal material, thereby implementing a gray level scale.
The storage capacitor 20 comprises the common line 16 and an upper storage electrode 22 overlapping the common line 16. The gate insulating film 46, the active layer 48, and the ohmic contact layer 50 are disposed between the common line 16 and the upper storage electrode 22, thereby insulating each other. A pixel electrode 14 is connected to the upper storage electrode 22 via a second contact hole 21 provided through the protective film 52. The storage capacitor 20 allows a pixel signal charged in the pixel electrode 14 to be maintained until the next pixel signal is charged.
The gate line 2 is connected to a gate driver (not shown) via the gate pad 24. The gate pad 24 comprises a lower gate pad electrode 26 extended from the gate line 2, and an upper gate pad electrode 28 connected to the lower gate pad electrode 26 via a third contact hole 27 passing through the gate insulating film 46 and the protective film 52. The data line 4 is connected to the data driver (not shown) via the data pad 30. The data pad 30 comprises a lower data pad electrode 32 extended from the data line 4, and an upper data pad electrode 34 connected to the lower data pad electrode 32 via a fourth contact hole 33 passing through the protective film 52.
The common line 16 receives a reference voltage from an external reference voltage source (not shown) through the common pad 36. The common pad 36 comprises a lower common pad electrode 38 extended from the common line 16, and an upper common pad electrode 40 connected to the lower common pad electrode 38 via a fifth contact hole 39 going through the gate insulating film 46 and the protective film 52.
A method of fabricating the thin film transistor substrate having the above-mentioned structure using the four-round mask process will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 3A to 3D. Referring to FIG. 3A, a gate metal pattern group including the gate line 2, the gate electrode 8, the lower gate pad electrode 26, the common line 16, the common electrode 18, and the lower common pad electrode 38 are provided on the lower substrate 45 by the first mask process.
More specifically, a gate metal layer is disposed on the upper substrate 45 by a deposition technique such as sputtering. Then, the gate metal layer is patterned by photolithography and etching process using a first mask to form the gate metal pattern group. The gate metal layer is formed from a metal such as aluminum-group metal, chrome (Cr) or molybdenum (Mo).
Referring to FIG. 3B, the gate insulating film 46 is coated onto the lower substrate 45 which is provided with the gate metal pattern group. Then, a semiconductor pattern including the active layer 48 and the ohmic contact layer 50 are provided followed by a source/drain metal pattern group including the data line 4, the source electrode 10, the drain electrode 12, the lower data pad electrode 32, and the upper storage electrode 22 through the second mask process.
More specifically, the gate insulating film 46, an amorphous silicon layer (i.e., active layer 48), an n+ amorphous silicon layer (i.e., ohmic contact layer 50), and a source/drain metal layer are sequentially disposed on the lower substrate 45 which is provided with the gate metal pattern group by deposition techniques such as plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) and sputtering, or other suitable technique The gate insulating film 46 is formed from an inorganic insulating material such as silicon nitride (SiNx) or silicon oxide (SiOx). The source/drain metal is made from molybdenum (Mo), titanium (Ti), tantalum (Ta) or a molybdenum alloy, or other suitable material.
Then, a photo-resist pattern is formed on the source/drain metal layer by the photolithography using a second mask. In this case, a diffractive exposure mask having a diffractive exposing part at a channel portion of the thin film transistor is used as a second mask, thereby allowing a photo-resist pattern of the channel portion to have a lower height than other source/drain pattern portion. Subsequently, the source/drain metal layer is patterned by a wet etching process using the photo-resist pattern to provide the source/drain metal pattern group.
Next, the n+ amorphous silicon layer (i.e., ohmic contact layer 50) and the amorphous silicon layer (i.e., active layer 48) are patterned simultaneously by a dry etching process using the same photo-resist pattern to provide the ohmic contact layer 50 and the active layer 48. The photo-resist pattern having a relatively low height is removed from the channel portion by ashing process and thereafter the source/drain metal pattern group and the ohmic contact layer 50 of the channel portion are etched by the dry etching process. Thus, the active layer 48 of the channel portion is exposed to disconnect the source electrode 10 from the drain electrode 12. Then, the photo-resist pattern still disposed on the source/drain metal pattern group is removed by stripping process.
Referring to FIG. 3C, the protective film 52 including the first to fifth contact holes 13, 21, 27, 33 and 39 are formed on the gate insulating film 46 provided with the source/drain metal pattern group by the third mask process. More specifically, the protective film 52 is provided on the gate insulating film 46 is patterned by photolithography and etching process using the third mask to define the first to fifth contact holes 13, 21, 27, 33 and 39. The first contact hole 13 passes through the protective film 52 to expose the drain electrode 12, whereas the second contact hole 21 passes through the protective film 52 to expose the upper storage electrode 22. The third contact hole 27 passes through the protective film 52 and the gate insulating film 46 to connect the upper gate pad electrode to the lower gate pad electrode 26. The fourth contact hole 32 passes through the protective film 52 to expose the lower data pad electrode 32. The fifth contact hole 30 passes through the protective film 52 and the gate insulating film 48 to expose the lower common pad electrode 38. If the source/drain metal pattern group is formed from a metal having a large dry-etching ratio such as molybdenum (Mo), then each of the first, second and fourth contact holes 13, 21 and 33 passing through the drain electrode 12, the upper storage electrode 22 and the lower data pad electrode 32, respectively exposed the side portion of the source/drain metal pattern group. The protective film 50 is formed from an inorganic material identical to that of the gate insulating film 46, or an organic material having a small dielectric constant such as an acrylic organic compound, BCB (benzocyclobutene) or PFCB (perfluorocyclobutane), or other suitable material.
Referring to FIG. 3D, a transparent conductive pattern group including the pixel electrode 14, the upper gate pad electrode 28, the upper data pad electrode 34 and the upper common pad electrode 40 are provided on the protective film 52 by the fourth mask process. More specifically, a transparent conductive film is coated onto the protective film 52 by a deposition technique such as sputtering, or other suitable technique. Then, the transparent conductive film is patterned by photolithography and etching process using a fourth mask to provide the transparent conductive pattern group. The pixel electrode 14 is electrically connected to the drain electrode 12 via the first contact hole 13, and also is electrically connected to the upper storage electrode 22 via the second contact hole 21. The upper gate pad electrode 28 is electrically connected to the lower gate pad electrode 26 via the third contact hole 37. The upper data pad electrode 34 is electrically connected to the lower data pad electrode 32 via the fourth contact hole 33. The upper common pad electrode 40 is electrically connected to the lower common pad electrode 38 via the fifth contact hole 39. The transparent conductive film is formed from indium-tin-oxide (ITO), tin-oxide (TO) or indium-zinc-oxide (IZO), or other suitable material.
The related art thin film transistor substrate of a horizontal electric field type LCD and the fabricating method thereof as mentioned above adopts the four-round mask process, thereby reducing the number of fabricating processes and hence reducing a manufacturing cost compared with those using the five-round mask process. However, since the four-round mask process still has a complicate fabricating process to limit a further cost reduction, there has been required a scheme capable of simplifying the fabricating process even further to save the manufacturing cost.